Stewart Sharma Harsanyi Immigration Law Firm Blog

FBI Clearance...

Prospective immigrants to Canada need to provide police clearances from every country in which they have resided in (6 months or more). In the case of US residents, this means both a state clearance (each state has its own procedure) AND a FBI clearance. Procedure for FBI Record Request follows: NB The following is lifted in its entirety from: FBI Identification Record Request page. Introduction An FBI Identification Record, often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FBI in connection with arrests and, in some instances, federal employment, naturalization, or military service. If the fingerprints are related to an arrest, the Identification Record includes name of the agency that submitted the fingerprints to the FBI, the date of arrest, the arrest charge, and the disposition of the arrest, if known to the FBI. All arrest data included in an Identification Record is obtained from fingerprint submissions, disposition reports and other reports submitted by agencies having criminal justice responsibilities. The United States Department of Justice Order 556-73 establishes rules and regulations for the subject of an FBI Identification Record to obtain a copy of his... Read more →

s.117(1)(h) - a mechanism of last resort...

Had to research an interesting regulation - s.117(1)(h) which allows someone to sponsor any relative regardless of age ... if the sponsor does not have a spouse, common law partner, conjugal partner, child, mother or father, a relative who is a child of that mother or father, a relative who is a child of a child of that mother or father, a mother or father of that mother or father or a relative who is a child of the mother or father of that mother or father - who is a Canadian citizen, Indian or permanent resident or whose application to enter and remain in Canada as a permanent resident the sponsor may otherwise sponsor... Given my difficulties in parsing this section I turned to the case law. The following should be of assistance in determining whether an individual can rely on the regulation to sponsor someone that doesn't fit the confines of the 'family class': http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/irb/doc/2006/2006canlii52296/2006canlii52296.html http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/irb/doc/2005/2005canlii56945/2005canlii56945.html http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/irb/doc/2006/2006canlii52301/2006canlii52301.html Justice Gibson's decision in Nguyen here. Looks like something that will only cross my desk once or twice during my time practicing law. Read more →

Cheema article...

The Calgary Herald published my article on Cheema on Friday (Article here), but unfortunately (without my knowledge or consent) they erroneously added a statement indicating that Narinder Pal Cheema was charged with his wife's murder (which is not the case). The Herald published a retraction in today's paper. I pointed out the error to the editor, noting that the article provided to the Herald did not indicate that Cheema was charged with the murder, only that he was detained and is considered the principal suspect by the authorities. Apparently the article was 'updated' with the statement that he was in fact charged. Read more →

Immigration to Canada - Worth Waiting For?

Just read a recent article by Jay Somerset which discusses the plight of skilled workers waiting for their PR status: Half of all skilled-worker applications take 55 months to be processed -- almost five years. Some take as many as 74 months. Somerset quotes from a number of stakeholders in the debate, including immigration practitioners and those stuck in the seemingly endless queue. When asked for my opinion, I simply pointed out the frustrations of many of my own clients (note to the reader - I am not a former CIC officer, but a former Refugee Protection Officer from the Immigration and Refugee Board): "People are giving up on Canada," says Raj Sharma, a former CIC officer who now practices immigration law in Calgary. "I've got a client from the U.K. who came here to study medicine. He passed his exams and is now working in the U.S. on a permit while he waits for his PR application to be processed. He's obviously qualified to live and work in Canada." Meanwhile, he notes, our doctor shortage persists. My client (who is actually a doctor) from the UK continues to wait for a decision on his PR application - it's only... Read more →